Get Ready to Feel the Love, McKinley
by nooneknowsmyname
Summary: Quinn reflects on her past three years with her family, her relationships, and her school image.  She doesn't like what she sees... Eventual Faberry


**A/N: Hello, all. It's my intention to follow the fabulous Quinn Fabray as she learns to love herself, embrace her home life, and transform her life at McKinley in her senior year. This will be eventual Faberry with some other major character appearances. So, I invite you to come along for the ride that should hopefully satisfy the angst, friendship, family, humor, and romance your little fanfic hearts desire. Also, if you feel so moved, press that little review button at the bottom and let me know your thoughts. If not, so be it! Enjoy…**

**A/N #2: I do not own these characters. Sadly, all I own are the mistakes.**

Chapter 1: "To feel the love of others…"

Quinn smiled at her image in the mirror. After a summer of soul-searching, following her rather emotional stint at National's, she finally felt a self-confidence that wasn't based on superficial validations. This year would be a year about making herself happy, instead of the rest of the outside world. No more prom queen bids or campaigning; no more dating someone for popularity; no more upkeep of a double life masked by that Fabray smile.

Over the past three months, she contemplated the last three years of her high school career and found she wasn't happy about her self-image at the end of it. She only truly had frenemies and ex-boyfriends at school; she wasn't ever really all that nice to people; and she lived with her mom, who was practically a stranger. She made up her mind that going to change that.

She started home life. As summer began, she approached her mom and spoke earnestly.

_Three months earlier…_

"_Mom?" she called as she casually cantered down the stairs. "Good morning! Where are you?" _

"_I'm in here, Quinnie."_

_Quinn heard her mom's voice trailing out from the kitchen. She spun around the banister at the base of the stairs and headed in toward the sound of a cabinet shutting._

"_Good morning. You're up early this morning, sweetie? Is everything okay?" her mother asked as she turned to fill her coffee cup on her way to work._

"_Yeah, Mom, of course. I just… wanted to catch you before you went to work."_

_At this, Judy looked at her, cup in hand, and gently leaned back against the counter. Curiosity spanned her face as she responded._

"_Oh really, why's that, hon'?"_

"_Well, I just wanted you to know that I'm happy to be back home with you. And, I know I haven't always been very forthcoming with you about what's happening in my life, but, I was hoping maybe I could change that. So, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight, kind of like a mother-daughter 'bonding' time, if you will."_

_Judy stood there and blinked once, twice, and a third time before a genuine smile brightened her face and a pleasant glaze coated her bright eyes._

"_I would like that very much."_

_Quinn smiled shyly, walking over to her mom, and hugged her tightly around the waist. _

That night, Quinn and Judy bonded indeed. They ordered pizza with extra bacon, made a makeshift blanket pallet on the floor of their family room, and let the other into the world each had been living this past year. Quinn talked of Glee competition drama, her on-again/off-again relationship with Finn, the struggles she had with joining and then quitting the Cheerios, the rollercoaster of prom, and her breakdown at National's. Her mother listened the whole time, thrilled that her daughter was being so open with her. Judy shared her happiness of having her daughter at home, the rundown of characters at her office, her excitement about the new Zumba class she was taking, and how cute her instructor was. Her daughter listened the whole time, thrilled to feel close to her mother again and not so lonely.

The rest of the summer went a lot like that. Every Thursday night became known as Mother and Daughter Family Night or MAD-FuN. They had spent about an hour on the first Thursday night laughing and brainstorming an official title for Thursdays. Finally, they had settled on a name, but not after a good 15 minutes spent trying to come up with a word for the "u." Quinn looked forward to those nights every single week. Sometimes they would watch movies, sometimes play cards, and sometimes order in and talk over chopsticks and Chinese food cartons.

On the last Thursday before school, Judy texted her daughter to meet her at the Lima City Park after she got off of work and to bring the picnic basket from the refrigerator. In the late afternoon, Quinn made her way to the park and found her mom in the parking lot, pulling a blanket from her trunk. After finding a shady spot, they laid out the picnic Judy had prepared. They shared casual conversation about each other's days until a comfortable silence came over them. The sun was setting and Judy addressed her daughter.

"_Quinn, Sweetie, with school starting next week, there is something I wanted to give you."_

_Quinn turned her attention from the sunset to her mother and tilted her head with curiosity._

_Her mother continued, "This summer has been absolutely amazing and I am so grateful to have my daughter back." Judy smiled at her daughter and Quinn blushed at this. The truth was she was happy to have her mom back, too. "I remember at the beginning of the summer, you had said at National's that you just wanted somebody to love you—"_

_Quinn interrupted her mother, "Mom, you know I didn't mean yo—"_

"_I know what you meant, Quinn." Judy interrupted her daughter, giving her a taste of her own medicine. "Let me finish."_

_Her daughter nodded her head and listened once again._

"_I wanted you to know that you and your sister are everything to me now, and there won't be anything ever again that will change that. I also want you to know that there is someone who will always love you no matter what. I've made my mistakes in the past, and you've made it clear that you have forgiven me, but, Lord knows, I will mess up again, Quinnie. No one is perfect, but I can promise you nothing will change the fact that I'm your mother and I love you. I'm so proud of the young woman you've become and I want you to be true to who you are because you're beautiful, Quinn. I love you."_

_With that, Judy held out a small felt box to her daughter. Quinn wiped the happy tears from her face, gently smiled, and took the box from her mom's hands. She carefully opened the lid and staring back at her was a small gold locket with a scrolled "Q" beautifully etched on the front of it. She took it from the box and opened it to reveal a small treasure—on the left side was a picture taken this summer of Judy and Quinn smiling and hugging each other at the neighbor's annual Fourth of July celebration; on the right side, in the same beautiful script from the front of the locket, it read, "To feel the love of others, you must first love yourself…"_

_There was no holding back the tears at this point. Quinn closed the locket and ran her thumb gently over the "Q." She looked up at her mother, who also had tears falling and swallowed before saying, "Thank you, Mom. I love you so much."_

Quinn glanced up to the mirror again, thumbing the gold locket resting against her skin. She smiled once more, smoothing her dress down, as her mother's voice carried up the stairs.

"Quinnie, hurry it up! You can't be late on the first day of your senior year!"

"Coming…"

And with that, Quinn grabbed her keys, purse, and book bag from her desk and bounded down the stairs. As she buckled herself into her car, she turned the ignition, and stole one more glance at herself in the rearview mirror.

"Get ready to feel the love, McKinley." She thought aloud as she backed out of the driveway.


End file.
